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In the recent interview with Katja Grace referenced on ACX, she mentioned that many people may be opposed to slowing down AI progress because (I'm paraphrasing) they perceive AGI as a genie that will solve longevity and other problems and bring about the Cool Transhumanist Future, which they won't see otherwise - due to their age and/or longer timelines. I have been hanging out in longevity/anti-aging spaces for a while and this perspective is exceedingly common there. People are very hyped about AI coming and curing aging, and dismiss any concerns about AI safety.

 

From this point of view, solving aging, or even just making a tangible progress towards LEV , will make those people less resistant to the notion of slowing/stopping AI progress. This is complementary to the often mentioned idea that longer life expectancy will cause people to care more about AGI (and other existential risks). This of course doesn't imply that anti-aging is more important than direct work on AI alignment, but 1) it is likely more tractable and 2) not everyone can or want to work on AI alignment directly.

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